THE NEW FORESTRY. 5 



forestry system of the past, in its most important features, has 

 been the main cause of failure and disappointment in the pro- 

 duction of timber crops, and that a more intelligent system 

 might alone turn the scale in the right direction. 



The extent of the woods on the majority of estates in Great 

 Britain are probably under 1,000 acres, while on many estates 

 of from 2,000 to 5,000 acres, or thereabout, they are less than 

 500 acres in extent, but in all cases they represent a large 

 portion of the value of the estate and have to be cared for. 



On small estates the owners are obliged to take more 

 interest in their woods than larger proprietors usually do, 

 because they can seldom employ woodmen above the rank of 

 labourers, who are generally ignorant of the rudiments of 

 forestry, and such men prefer simple rules of work to general 

 principles unless the latter are put in short and simple form. 

 Owners, too, are often of the same way of thinking, and 

 nothing is more likely to hinder an improved system from 

 being adopted than making it appear difficult to carry out. 

 Such are some of the conditions that have to be faced as 

 ownership exists at present, and few, perhaps, have had better 

 opportunities of knowing than the writer. We want a new 

 system, but it must be made as easy as possible. 



The mistake of some teachers, with a Continental training 

 only, and unfamiliar with British woods and their wants, is 

 that they can seldom conceive of anything less than a State 

 forest, and State plans and re-organisation of woods on an 

 English estate puzzles them, while their too comprehensive 

 schemes frighten owners. Confronted with an average 

 British wood, composed of a mixture of more species than 

 a German forester, confined to spruce, beech, and Scotch 

 fir, probably sees all the days of his life, and never contem- 

 plated in his education, not to mention game, they might well 

 despair and suggest, as some have done, that existing woods 

 should go by the board and a fresh start be made on new 

 areas a scheme which would not work and which owners 

 could not afford to entertain, not to mention the uncertainty 

 of any system being continued from one generation to 

 another. The German forester's education is thorough, but 

 he is forced to acquire much knowledge which, like the short 

 sword he wears under his tunic, he never uses, and which in 

 this country would be of less use still. Keeping an accurate 

 record of everything in the forest section under his charge 

 and reporting to his superior officers probably makes a greater 

 demand upon a German ober-forster's time and intelligence 



